Tag: lovage

I love Lovage!

~ Homo neanderthalensis ~ Leave a comment

I do!

Got a few plants on order from my local garden center. They’re a bit wiggly because of being grown in a greenhouse or indoors I think- trying to get the most light. But no matter- once they’re in pots and in a sunny spot they should grow nice and tall. I potted them up in good soil and some sure start.

I love the way lovage tastes. I had a nice plant in the shaded patch, but it got all buggy and gross. Hopefully by keeping them in pots on tables it’ll cut down on the bug load.

Lovage is an old herb. The Romans used to use a ton of it, and it’s still used in Italy. It tastes like a sharp celery- but it’s a member of the parsley family. Some people use the hollow stems of fully grown lovage as a straw for Bloody Mary’s! I don’t know if I’ll be quaffing Hemingway’s favorite hangover cure- but lovage is really versatile. I like to put it with other herbs and beef in an herb roast- or in the breading of chicken cutlets. It’s also great in tuna salad, or in a regular salad with other greens.

It’s so pretty too! And it makes your hands smell really nice when you handle it.

Here’s to the Romans! Horrible bastards- good taste in herbs.

Working hard or hardly working

~ Homo neanderthalensis ~ Leave a comment

It’s the first one, I swear!

It was time… to tear down the bean vines.

It really highlighted how weirdly crooked that double bed is but who cares. What was kinda nuts was how much the carrots were covered by a sort of natural compost made of fallen and rotting bean leaves. I filled a whole garbage bag full and then put it in the green compost can. As was expected I couldn’t save the netting the beans were growing on, but the stakes themselves were all ok, and are now living in the corner between the sheds. While I was cleaning out the mess I found three slugs! The only slugs I’d seen all season thanks to my judicious use of sluggo. They were dispatched along with what looked like a raft of eggs. (Not pictured because EW EW EW) considering that’s the bed the zucchini was in- I think I found what killed the zucchini. RIP zucchini- fuck slugs!

I did a ton of weeding today too. Around the raised beds and the pots there are always weeds because that’s the only place that gets any water.

But I also pulled the bug eaten lovage plant and trimmed the caterpillar nibbled leaves of the shiso and sage plants.

I love lovage.

But I’m not sad.

Because I ordered two more plants from my local garden center wheeee! They’ll call me when they are available. One will go in a pot- one will go where the marjoram was… we will see which does better. I love lovage- I can’t wait to have tons to cook with. Hopefully with less holes in them this time.

I also cut back my blue basil. Now I know what you’re thinking. “Gentle hominid gardener – that doesn’t look that much different than the last picture you posted of your African blue basil plant!”

Well that’s because I’m a coward. The plant was swarming with bees and I had to wait till the early evening just to be able to trim it without being stung. And it was more of a trim than a cut back because I didn’t want to disappoint my bee friends. (And incur their wrath). I cut the undergrowth and the parts that were hanging over the side or growing into the hyssop- but I largely left the top flowers intact. It’s just so pretty!

I can’t grow regular flowers for allergy reasons, so I do love the ones I can grow.

Even if I should be growing the plant for the leaves. Whoops what pesto? THE PESTO IS FOR THE BEES-!!!